Caught in the middle: the EU-Morocco co-operation on migration management and the human rights of migrants

Abstract

Migration management and control have become defining elements of EU’s relationship with its neighboring countries, especially those south of the Mediterranean. It is illustrative that migration is quasi-present in all EU external policies tragetting third countries, especially those considered as major migrant sending and/or transit countries. Due to the geopolitical significance of Morocco’s location, the EU and its members states have devised several policy frameworks and provided financing and technical assistance to deepen their cooperation with the kingdom on matters pertaining to migration management and border control. In this context, Morocco seems to be balancing its response to EU’s incentives and pressure by showing cooperation on border control and resisting proposals that it deems detrimental to its strategic interests. Both parties, however, seem to have forgotten or pursposefully ignore, that their cooperation and efforts to stem migration do not evolve in a vaccuum and have consequences on the rights of those individuals they aim to prevent from reaching Europe. This thesis, therefore, aims to examine the multifaceted EU-Morocco cooperation on migration, with a particular focus on the human rights consequences it engenders. This thesis will also investigate how Morocco’s attempts to reconciale the divergent interets of its partners with its own, prevents it from building its legal and institutional frameworks to fulfill its legal obligations.